The Manufacturing Executive

Have you ever worked in a business where everyone seems to be working in their own silos? Product development is doing their thing. Production is doing their thing. Sales and marketing are doing their own things. My first reaction when I see these silos is – what a wasted opportunity. In this conversation, Anthony Rodriguez, Co-Owner & Vice President at KETIV, talks about that wasted opportunity, specifically in the context of engineering data.

Foundation comes first. This is something our team at Gorilla talks about often in the context of a marketing program. But in today's conversation, Bill Kaewert, CEO and CTO of Stored Energy Systems LLC, extrapolates this "foundation first" principle to a greater business context. Specifically, he'll tell you why sales and marketing are wasted endeavors if they're not standing on a strong foundation that's comprised of product, systems, processes and people.

I've always been a believer in creating the right seats on the bus, and THEN filling those seats with the right people. But when you're a family owned business, in a lot of ways, the people are already there, and you have to figure out how to fit them into those seats (and fill in the holes around them). In this conversation, Ryan Margolin, CEO of Professional Hair Labs, talks about the dynamics of running a family-owned manufacturing business – a topic of relevance for so much of the manufacturing sector.

What does the word "brand" mean to you as a manufacturing leader? A logo and a tagline? A color palette and collection of images or graphics you use on your website, in your sales decks and at your trade show booth? Or is brand something more than that? And as a B2B manufacturer, why does all of this matter anyway? Paul Kiesche, President of Aviate Creative, is a seasoned branding professional working inside of the manufacturing sector. And in this episode, these are the types of questions he'll be answering.

Improved inventory accuracy. Higher productivity in your facility. Less required labor. This is what can happen when you put drones and AI together inside of a warehouse or distribution center. In this conversation, Sean Mitchell, VP of Customer Success at Gather AI, will show you what his organization is doing to lead inventory monitoring into a new era.

"My goodness, let's let a robot do that". These few words Ale Walker, Director of Business Development at Gray Solutions, summarize the general feeling of excitement she experiences when walking through manufacturing facilities today. And not only because of the opportunity she sees to change the way we manufacturer products in the United States, but also because of the quality of jobs we can create.

158 weeks and 158 episodes ago we launched this podcast, The Manufacturing Executive, as a resource for CEOs, Presidents and owners. Last year, we introduced a second podcast, The Manufacturing Marketer as a learning resource for those inside of the same organizations with "marketing" in their job titles. And this April, we rounded it out with the launch of our third podcast, The Manufacturing Employer, for the hiring managers, HR pros and culture builders inside of the industrial sector. In this conversation with the host of our new show, my business partner Jon Franko, we'll talk about why we're doing it and what's ahead.

Jason Pace, manufacturing COO, shares the 5 key transformations for transitioning a lifestyle business to a growth business in manufacturing. They discuss leveraging technology, combating labor shortages, streamlining operations, and mitigating risks through outsourcing and fractional skill sets. They also emphasize the importance of delivering high value to customers through lean management and standardized processes.

Over the past few years, we've all seen and experienced the effects of rising labor and material costs. But as John Abplanalp, President & Principal Consultant at Tight Lines Advisors, will tell you today, alongside these challenges, productivity in US manufacturing is at it's lowest point in 75 years. Put all of this together, and the recipe for profitability becomes pretty a challenging one to make. This episode is all about productivity, and why it needs to be a core area of focus as we look ahead to the future of American manufacturing.

The motivation for today's manufacturing workforce goes much deeper than salary and benefits alone. Individuals want to know that they matter, that their work is making an impact, that they have a voice and that it's being heard. Michael Sullivan, Senior Recruiter at Miller Resource Group, spends as much time with employers as he does with job candidates. And in this conversation, he'll talk about what today's manufacturing workforce actually wants.